New friends, Old problems
by wayofthepen
Summary: Weiss and Blake find themselves called upon by opposite sides of a dispute at a Schnee dust mine. But those involved cannot see them as hunters, and it is demanded that the two girls return to playing old roles. The Schnee Heiress, and the White Fang assassin. Re-written. Hints of checkmate.
1. Chapter 1

"Come in, everyone."

Ozpin stood behind his desk, looking tired. Team RWBY stepped in and made a line as he turned to address them.

"Beacon has been asked to send out a team of hunters in response to a recent series of grimm attacks. I believe this particular task is one your team is uniquely suited to handle, though I would understand if you wish to decline."

"There's nothing this team can't handle."

Ozpin managed a small grin at Yang's quip, but there wasn't much mirth in it. With a gesture, a screen appeared in the air, showing a map of the countryside and highlighting a location far to the south of Vale.

"A Schnee dust mine is threatened by grimm that have seemingly learned how to evade the existing security measures, and have made several hit-and-run attacks before retreating into the wilderness. Complicating matters are agitators believed to be members of the White Fang, who are claiming the breaches of security are the result of negligence on the part of the management. They're stirring up unrest among the mainly-fauna workforce and calling for…action to be taken."

Standing together, Blake and Weiss both resisted the urge to glance in the other's direction.

"The terrain is treacherous and the location isolated." Ozpin continued. "When the matter was first brought to my attention, I received the distinct impression that the company was prepared to respond to the situation with an excessive amount of force in light of the White Fang's suspected involvement."

"You spoke with my father?"

Weiss' posture was far less confident than it was a moment before.

"Yes, and I argued that sending a group of hunters would not aggravate the situation as a military response might. Thankfully the Council agreed with my assessment of the situation, over the objections of Mr. Schnee. I felt that you four girls would be best suited to handle this issue, given your team's diverse…backgrounds."

"I'll do it." Weiss took a step forwards, feet coming together and snapping to attention. "It's my responsibility as the company heiress, and as a huntress."

"You mean, we'll do it."

Ruby leaned forwards to quirk a brow at her teammate without leaving the line, and Weiss took a slow half-step backwards.

"Oh. Right."

Yang grunted in agreement, and Blake just nodded.

"We'll do it!" Ruby pumped a fist into the air.

"Then I wish you all luck, and be careful. It will be dangerous enough defending the site from a siege of grimm without any of the factions involved in this situation destabilizing things any further."

After team RWBY had left his office, Ozpin took his seat and brushed away the reports hovering in the air behind his desk. It really was a strange twist of fate that had arranged for the heiress of the Schnee dust company and a former member of the White Fang to come to Beacon at almost exactly the same time.

Manipulating events to get them on the same team had been a risk; there were so many things that could have gone wrong as a result. But seeing the two of them coming together…it opened new possibilities for reducing tension between humans and fauna that he would have once thought to be impossible, even in his most optimistic moments.

* * *

Team RWBY hitched a ride to the mine on a Schnee airship making a supply run. While Yang shared her impatience at the ship's slow pace, Ruby was more worried about the way Weiss and Blake were acting. Those two weren't exactly chatty, but now they were actually avoiding each other.

It made for awkwardness when the team had to gather to review the mission materials. Sitting next to Weiss, it was obvious to Ruby that Weiss and Blake were trying to not even look at each other.

"Oh come on!"

All three girls jumped at Ruby's shout.

"What is wrong with you two? We're finally on a mission, just like real hunters!"

"I'm sorry, but I'm not looking forwards to seeing another Schnee operation up close."

"I'd say I resent that…If I wasn't thinking the same thing." Blake looked straight at Weiss for the first time that day, and Weiss met her gaze with an attempt at a smile. "I was caught in the middle of a worker's protest at a facility I toured several years ago. My handlers weren't fast enough to get me out before I got a glimpse of how the security forces responded. Believe me, I will be happy to shut the mine down at the slightest sign of corruption among the management."

Ruby relaxed slightly when she saw Blake's expression soften.

"So what's the plan?" Yang slapped a map down to the table as the spoke, a little louder than necessary. The distraction seemed to work, bringing the girls back to focus on the present.

"Well, I'll be interviewing the department heads, of course."

"Then how about I go with you to talk to the employees, while Yang and Blake can-"

"You won't be able to." Weiss cut her leader off. "My father implemented some very strict rules when he took over the company. There are a lot of things that employees aren't allowed to talk about or share with people outside the company. I can't change that."

"And I have to talk to the workers alone." Blake added. "They won't speak openly with humans around."

"Then I guess that leaves us to check the security and maybe hunt some grimm." Yang gave her sister a reassuring pat on the shoulder. This would be Ruby's first official mission for Beacon and it was going to be a doozy, she could tell.

"Oh, Sure." Weiss rolled her eyes. "Take the easy job."


	2. Chapter 2

The team disembarked to find a small welcoming committee. Ruby saw suits and uniforms bearing the Schnee company logo, and shivered at the line of workers behind a fence who had stopped to stare at the new arrivals. They were all faunas, and none of them looked very happy to see her.

One man separated from the group, going straight for Weiss to welcome her here. He didn't miss a beat when Weiss corrected him and introduced Ruby as the team leader.

"Excuse me…Ms. Ruby, was it? I'm Reginald Gart, director of operations here."

He was smooth, Ruby gave him that. She accepted the offered handshake and introduced her team, resisting the urge to squeal in glee.

Her team! On a mission!

Ahem.

"While Weiss is talking to you and your staff, I'd like to take Yang and Blake to have a look at your defenses. I'm hoping we can find out how the grimm are getting in."

"Of course. I'll have my chief of security bring you what information he can on our setup so you can confer with him."

The team parted, Weiss following Mr. Gart along with a fair number of security guards. Ruby watched them go down a path towards what she guessed was the administrative buildings. They were fenced in, walled off, and were at least two security checkpoints separate from the areas the faunas were moving through. She was beginning to understand why Weiss and Blake had been so tense. This place was built like a prison. Maybe she was just letting it get to her, but Ruby couldn't help but think that some of the weapon emplacements peppering the walls looked like they were capable of being turned around and pointed inwards.

Halfway to the outer walls, Ruby set her shoulders and gave a nod. Blake disappeared, leaving Ruby and Yang to turn a corner and meet up with the guards that had assembled to escort them while outside the walls. Hopefully, they wouldn't notice the group was one huntress short.

Blake avoided Schnee security with the ease of long practice. She moved from awning to roof to rafter in total silence, seething at what she saw. The fauna workers kept their voices and heads low whenever a security guard passed by. Fear was in their eyes, an unspoken dread hanging over the entire camp. Blake leapt to the ground in the shadow of a processing silo. She stepped lightly in the hopes her sudden appearance wouldn't startle anyone, but there wasn't a single fauna that didn't react to her presence without fear.

"Don't be afraid, I'm here to help. And…"

Making a slightly exaggerated show of checking for any guards that might be watching, Blake reached up and undid her bow. She was expecting them to be relieved, not to swarm her with pleas for help them.

"It's alright, that's why I'm here. My team is going to track down the grimm that-"

"It's not the grimm we're afraid of!"

Blake stared at the worker who spoke. He was older than most, grey hairs and rough skin speaking of a career miner. One equine ear was half-gone, torn and scarred, and by the way the other faunas parted when he stepped forwards, he apparently held a measure of respect among them.

"It's the company. They're going to kill us all."

* * *

As night was falling, the team was assembled once again in an empty office that had been set aside for their use. Yang was busy making drawing the mine's perimeter on a whiteboard and making notes on the kinds of defenses it had.

"We checked out the defenses. They're pretty tight." Yang tapped the board as she spoke, adding a few arrows and question marks. "I just can't figure out how a grimm could get in, kill someone, and get out without being spotted."

"I spoke with the site supervisor and each of the senior staff." Weiss sat down and folded her hands in her lap, her posture formal. "And then I got taken on a tour while the director did his best to butter me up. Other than a security chief who sounded a little gung-ho whenever grimm or the White Fang came up in the conversation, I'm really not getting the impression of lax safety procedures or abuse towards the workforce."

"But every fauna I talked to was terrified." Blake was seated directly across from Weiss, her eyes and tone hard. "Everyone believes this place is going to become another Belasco."

"Belasco?" Ruby asked.

"Belasco-/It was-"

Weiss and Blake shared a very uncomfortable look. Blake crossed her arms and looked away, and Weiss took that as an invitation to speak first.

"Lake Belasco was a major Schnee mining operation." Weiss began, trying to keep her tone neutral. "The location was isolated, so workers were dropped in by airship and had to live on-site for the duration of their employment."

"And their contracts stated that anyone who elected to quit and return home with the supply ships would not be paid unless they completed a full shift." Blake continued, her voice flat but her posture tense. "Six months of backbreaking labor in horrible conditions."

"Safety regulations were ignored, and it was later discovered that the site foreman was also embezzling funds and stealing supplies to sell on the black market. As a result, the site was left dangerously under-equipped to defend itself."

"When a horde of grimm were drawn to the camp by the misery of the workers, the weakened defences were overrun within minutes, and the workers were slaughtered. A few managed to escape into the mines and seal the entrance. By the time help arrived, between the grimm, starvation, and despair…less than a dozen faunas were still alive out of a crew of almost six hundred. The Schnee company staff lived apart from the workers in an armored bunker, and escaped without a single injury."

Ruby looked back and forth between the girls sitting across from her. The way they spoke and held themselves was making her stomach twist.

"Of course, after the truth was found out the foreman and his accomplices were charged with embezzlement and several other crimes."

"The Schnee dust company as a whole received a slap on the wrist, after their lawyers managed to pin the majority of the blame on the foreman and his accomplices."

Blake's eyes were glistening, and she wiped at them with her hands. Weiss opened her mouth, closed it, and looked like she very much wanted to say something. Instead, she waited for Blake to compose herself by smoothing out nonexistent wrinkles in her dress, and when she spoke next, her voice was much softer.

"But before they could be arrested, they disappeared."

"The 'Belasco fiasco' became a rallying cry for the White Fang and helped the militant faction grow in influence. The previous leader of the White Fang stepped down shortly after the truth got out about what happened there."

"And after all of that, they never found the guys who caused all of that?" Ruby tentatively asked.

"The police didn't. But the White Fang did."

Yang had a feeling she was about to regret asking, but the words were out of her mouth before she could stop herself.

"So what happened to them?"

Blake lowered her head, refusing to let her teammates see her face as memories flashed through her mind. She remembered first hearing the story of Belasco. She remembered being filled with righteous anger and vicious satisfaction at the news that those responsible would not escape punishment.

Of course, as a rising star within the White Fang, she'd been given a front row seat to the proceedings, eager but having no idea what to expect. What she saw that day had nothing to do with the White Fang she'd grown up in.

Pleading humans.

A freshly dug pit.

The howling of caged grimm.

_Tearing, ripping, chewing…_

"…You really don't want to know."

* * *

Ruby had told her team to take a break, and Blake had left without another word. Her eyes were still red when they were back together again, and Ruby was glad when Yang took the lead and broke the silence.

"So…did the fauna working here say anything specific?"

"Apparently, one of the laborers overheard the operations director and a few other employees planning to shut down the defensive systems during the next grimm attack. After the laborers were all dead, they would blame it on White Fang sabotage."

"Why would they possibly do something like that?"

"Money. You don't have to pay dead laborers."

"Ridiculous." Weiss leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms. "The money the company would lose from the consequences of doing something like that doesn't even begin to compare to the workforce's combined paychecks."

"Maybe. But that's just one of the rumors among the fauna here." Blake looked out the window, which afforded them a view of the laborers' housing. The window had bars on it. "The only thing they can agree on is that the company can't or won't protect them from the grimm, and everyone is afraid that the next attack…will be the last one."

"That's weird." Ruby spoke up. "If things here are so bad, there should be a lot more grimm out there. But we didn't meet a single one, and only saw a few tracks."

"They'll come." Blake turned to look at the notes Yang had made. "Unless we stop whatever is happening here."

"She's right." Yang added. "It happens all the time in isolated places like this. We have to do something to convince the people here that they're not in danger, or sooner or later there really will be an army of grimm out there."

"What did the security chief say? When I spoke to him, he wouldn't stop talking about the White Fang terrorists he's convinced are hiding among the workers."

"We went to the locations where the attacks happened." Yang checked a sheet of paper before adding six new marks to the board. A technician was killed far from the camp when he was coming back from a geological survey. The next two deaths happened just inside the second defensive line. The tech I spoke to said there was an unexplained glitch that shut down the grid. Numbers four, five, and six were workers killed just inside the walls on the east side."

"A lot of the fauna I spoke to believe the security system is intentionally being turned off. That the company threw them to the grimm because the security chief thought they were members of the White Fang."

"Were they?" Weiss asked.

Blake glared at her in response.

"I'm not saying that makes it alright if they were!" Weiss protested in response. "But why would two ordinary laborers even be outside the walls in the middle of the night?"

"…" Blake looked a little stunned by the question, followed by a degree of sheepishness. "…I have no idea. I'm sorry, it's just that after talking to the faunas here, I…I should have asked more questions."

"Don't worry about it." Ruby assured her teammate. "The Chief thinks that they were with the White Fang, and that they were trying to sabotage the security system for some reason. He…couldn't actually give me any evidence to back that up, but it's the story he's sticking with."

"I didn't see any of the usual identifiers when I was talking to the workers. There might not even be any White Fang here."

"Well." Weiss stood and stretched. "That's one less thing to worry about, at least."

There was a time Blake would have made a retort, but she had to agree. Still, even after getting to know Weiss better and extending her some sympathy for what she'd grown up with, Blake could still manage a decent eye-roll in the other girl's direction.

It gave her an excellent view of the building across the street as it exploded.


	3. Chapter 3

Standing with her back to the window, Weiss caught the brunt of the glass thrown into the air by the shockwave. She screamed, more in surprise than pain, and fell to the floor. Blake threw herself clear on reflex, while Yang and Ruby were both peppered with shards as they lifted their arms to protect their faces.

Ears ringing, Yang stumbled towards her sister. Ruby flailed weakly as Yang helped her sit up, carefully checking her over for injury. Her cloak had shielded her, little chunks of glass tumbling off the cloth as she stood on wobbling feet.

Weiss was flat on the floor, blindly pawing at her neck. Spots of red were becoming red smears, and Blake went to her side as quickly as she could, grabbing Weiss' hands to keep her from making her injuries any worse in the confusion. Several small shards of glass were embedded in her neck, Weiss' collar having blocked some flying shards and trapped others. Blake did her best to calm Weiss down, moving her hands and hair away from her neck so she could see her injuries clearly. Blood was trickling from a few long cuts, but the chance that there might be shards lodged and lost in the cuts was the real danger and Blake began gently brushing away what glass she could see.

"Weiss? Weiss! Blake, how is she?"

Yang and Ruby were on their feet, looking worried but otherwise fine.

"I can't tell. Find something I can use to clean this up."

Yang and Ruby both turned to search just as shots rang out from somewhere outside. Yang ran to the window and saw streams of people running in random direction, some were going towards to fire, others fleeing in panic. She could see a dozen small flashes as dust-charges were primed and thrown, and the burning building suffered a string of smaller detonation that sent flaming debris raining down on nearby buildings and workers.

"Someone's starting a war down there!"

Yang ran for the door, but froze and looked back at Weiss and Blake, still on the floor and smeared with blood.

"Here!"

Ruby returned with a water bottle, and Blake took it, torn between wanting to stay for her teammate and going outside to help her species.

"Go." Blake hated herself for saying it. "I've got this. Go!"

Ruby and Yang were gone in a moment, barreling past employees without stopping to explain.

Blake opened the bottle and pulled at the collar of a quiet and unresisting Weiss. Water washed away the blood and took a few glittering grains with it, and Blake scrutinized each cut before quickly moving to the next. Experience in patching up her own wounds during her service to the White Fang made the impromptu treatment go quickly.

"…Blake?"

Weiss' voice was quiet and filled with fear.

"You're going to be fine, Weiss. It's not that bad."

Blake helped Weiss to sit up, and saw that she was paler than usual, eyes wide and breathing hard. She was staring at the blood on her hands, and Blake splashed the last of the water over them. Weiss began wiping them on her dress absentmindedly as she looked up at Blake, then around the room.

"Where…are Ruby and Yang…"

"They've gone to help with the fire."

"Oh…"

Weiss was too quiet. Blake brushed loose hair away from her face and pressed a hand against her cheek, turning Weiss to face her.

"Weiss, look at me."

Blake gave her a hard slap. Weiss' eyes widened and she jerked back to awareness.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"You looked like you were about to go into shock."

"And you thought slapping me was supposed to help?"

Blake matched Weiss' stare…for about three seconds.

"Well, it certainly made me feel better."

"Oh you little…!"

Weiss continued to sputter as Blake helped her up and into a chair. Blake had nothing to bandage the cuts with, and had to settle for clamping a hand tight over Weiss' neck with only the lace of her high collar to staunch the blood flow. The pressure made Weiss hiss in pain, screwing her eyes shut.

"Can you walk?"

Weiss began to nod, and her body went rigid as the motion caused a fresh jolt of pain. She unscrewed her eyes and answered with a look, putting a hand on Blake's shoulder for support.

Carefully, Blake moved her teammate out the door to search for a doctor.

* * *

Outside, it was anarchy.

The roads were unpaved, rutted and uneven. Shadows danced in the firelight, making footing even more difficult, and just as they seemed to be making progress, the girls ran straight into a crowd of workers fleeing the fire. They could hear gunfire above the din, and the runners forced the two girls to slow down or risk stumbling into the mass and getting trampled. Several bodies already lay motionless in the road, half-pressed into the mud.

Whenever Yang considered stopping to check on them, a gunshot or explosion was heard, urging her to keep moving. She could see Ruby hesitate, and waved her on ahead, bending down to examine one of the fallen workers.

The impossible angle his neck was bent at told her there was nothing she could do, and she moved to the next body.

Ruby had a hand on her scythe, ready to draw. The burning building gave her plenty of light to see by. She just didn't have the slightest idea of what to do.

It was chaos. Fauna were hunkered down wherever they could find cover, after being caught in the melee during the shift change. The security forces had been overwhelmed, and had withdrawn into small pockets of flailing batons among the rioters. Someone had climbed a forklift, waving a Molotov cocktail.

A quick leap, grab and backhanded swing disarmed and knocked him out. Trying to focus past the screams and trouble below, Ruby began picking out and picking off anyone else that was armed. She sliced through a stolen rifle, kicked off the head of a fauna wielding a chainsaw, broke a trio of picks, and checked her swing when she saw her last target had only grabbed a fallen riot shield to protect the workers covering behind him.

A slash through the fence behind them opened a way out, and she caught a momentary look of gratitude from him before going to find more trouble. A familiar-sounding explosion told her Yang had caught up, watching a group of ragged workers flee through the hole she'd made in a warehouse wall.

Ruby turned and looked for the next objective…but there was only a sea of bodies, a flailing, screaming, chaotic mess with no clear identity or purpose. Seeing it left her hesitant…she knew she had to do something, that there were people to help and troublemakers to stop. She just couldn't pick one or the other out from the mayhem, and she wavered, lost, in a spot of calm away from the brawling.

Dull cracks, hissing, and a fresh wave of outcries were the only warning she had before the crowd split and broke apart, and she had to jump to higher ground to avoid being overrun. The stinging in her eyes made Ruby realize that security had brought out the tear gas, and the crowd was routed by an advancing line of guards in heavy armor, and Ruby winced with each crunch of baton-on-bone she heard.

The crowd could offer no real resistance beyond sheer mass, and it was slowly broken up and penned in behind lines of tinted visors and riot shields. Ruby didn't like it one bit, not the bruises or the blood or the fear in their eyes, but felt Yang's hand on her shoulder when she started moving towards a brewing fight when the guards began putting restraints on people.

The crash of burning masonry falling to the ground reminded the two girls that there was still a building on fire to deal with, and they resentfully left the security forces to do their work. The barren landscape and spread-out buildings meant the fire had little chance of spreading, but the risk of dust, fuel or stockpiled chemicals being ignited couldn't be ignored, and dealing with the riot meant there was less manpower to go around.

It was a reassuring sight when a window spewing smoke was frozen over. There was a thick bandage around Weiss' neck when she rejoined the sisters, and she seemed to be fine, though moving a little stiffly. Blake was a different story, utterly failing to hide her fury at what she was seeing.

It took hours, but the fire was slowly brought under control. The firebombs were chemical-based and resistant to a simple dowsing. While the people inside had more than enough time to get out, the burnt-out shell of the building was left smouldering and thick with toxic fumes.

* * *

The team's gear was recovered and moved to another building, and Chief Donahue wouldn't get over the fact that the bombers had targeted the building that the huntresses had been assigned to bunk in. Though that bit of information was hardly a secret, their debriefing, as if quelling the riot was somehow a mission, often veered into one-sided speculation about how far the White Fang had infiltrated the mine's communication systems or if there were sympathizers among the administration.

Having spent most of the incident tending to Weiss' injuries, Blake had little to say and spent most of the time staring out the window and doing her very best to not kill the babbling man.

Blake's tension was obvious to everyone but him, it seemed. Her hands curled into fists as he began going over how he'd be converting an unused shaft into a holding area, and Weiss interrupted him as she saw Blake's hands creeping towards her weapon.

"No!"

"-and the beauty of it…Ms. Schnee?"

"I said no. Mass imprisonment is out of the question."

The chief's mouth hanged open, and he stared at Weiss in confusion for a few moments before continuing.

"But there's no way we can isolate the ringleaders from the general rabble, and-"

"As I understand it, the incident occurred during a shift change. No doubt the vast majority of faunas present were not involved in planning the attack, and were only caught up in the confusion of it. Imprisoning all of the fauna involved would only encourage further rebelliousness, to say nothing of the drop in productivity. Lock up those fauna that were subdued by my teammates or that were directly involved in the attack. One of them is likely to be the organizer. Without the guidance of an alpha, any accomplices won't be able to accomplish anything."

Weiss' voice and expression were perfectly calm, tinged with just a hint of distain. Her words reminded Yang of the kind of speeches human supremacists made. Faunas didn't have 'alphas'…oh, now she was reminding the chief about faunas and enclosed spaces. She'd heard that bit of psycho-bunk tossed around quite a bit, which was traditionally followed by a tasteless joke. Given the crowd she'd grown up around, Yang imagined Weiss had plenty of material to draw on to play the fauna-hating corporate executive.

One of these days, she'd have to find out how Weiss managed to avoid turning out like the rest of her family.

She glanced over at Blake. With Weiss holding her position over him to dictate how the aftermath should be handled, Blake was…not exactly calm, but at least not still giving her the impression she was about to jump across the room and take his head off. Ruby left her seat to join Blake at the window and try to distract her as the conversation wound down.

Once the security chief was out of the room with his marching orders, Blake punched the wall. Hard. A rising hiss escaped her lips, and Ruby took a step away from the furious girl.

"Blake, I-"

"Don't. Please."

Blake's eyes were red and rimmed with tears.

"I know what you're going to say. 'It's going to be all right.' But it's never going to be all right! Nothing I do, nothing anyone does will ever matter as long as people like that keeps the fighting going for…for whatever stupid, twisted reasons…"

Blake buried her face in her arms, and Ruby reached out for her, holding on despite the half-hearted attempt to push her away.

* * *

"Ms. Yang?"

Yang put down her glass and the food she'd been picking at, stuck between being hungry and having no appetite. She'd been approached by an incredibly generic-looking secretary holding a tablet and looking about as nervous as every other employee was right now.

"Just Yang is fine. Did something happen?"

"Err…"

"I mean besides the bombing and the riot."

"Oh, no. I just came by to tell you that new rooms have been set aside for your team in a different building. I'm afraid due to all the people we've had to move around, you'll have to double up. This key is for you and your sister, and I've already delivered the other to Ms. Schnee and her friend."

"Weiss and…Blake…"

"Is something wrong?"

"Oh no, I'm sure they'll be fine together. Really."

Yang had never had much of a poker face.

* * *

After a moment of mutual awkwardness, Blake and Weiss crawled into the room's single bed. It wasn't much larger than the beds at Beacon and made settling in that much more difficult for the two girls. Weiss turned off the lights and carefully lay down, wanting nothing but to just sleep, but the day's events were making it impossible to clear her mind.

"Blake?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry…for what I had to say before."

"It's all right."

"No, it's-"

"You said what you had to, to keep people from being hurt for something they didn't deserve. I understand. Because I've had to do it too."

"I hate having to do it. I don't want to be like that. I don't understand why anyone would want to. But if I didn't, then…"

"Some people just won't listen to you unless they think you're the same as them. And you never forget the sound of your own voice trying to make such insane things sound…reasonable."

Weiss reached for Blake's hand in the dark and squeezed, gently. Blake turned to face the girl lying next to her, and even with the curtains drawn, the moonlight that filtered through made her eyes shine in the dark, allowing Weiss to see that some of the pain in them was draining away.

Blake let her head fall down into the pillow, Weiss' hand still around hers…which let the other girl feel a faint vibration.

"Did you just…purr?"

"A little? …I haven't slept in a bed this nice since I stole one."

Blake felt, more than heard, Weiss' quiet laughter through their contact.

"It was a huge four-poster bed, and the mattress was so soft I sank right into it." With her free hand, Blake gestured in the air to illustrate her thoughts. "The headboard was one big piece of carved crystal, and the curtains had these snowflake patterns-"

"With little blue crystals, and white spiral posts that looked like icicles?!"

"Yes. How did-"

"That was mine! I had it custom-ordered for my 12th birthday! I was having cake right when someone came in and told me the White Fang had stolen my birthday presents!"

"Oh. Sorry. But I remember that most of it was junk anyways."

Weiss muttered something under her breath and harrumphed dramatically.

"But the bed was really nice. I liked it a lot."

"…"

"But then that hideout was discovered, so we had to burn it down."

Blake, like all faunas, had excellent night vision. The pillow that was swung at her head was easy to catch. It too was very soft and Blake kept it for herself, earning another grumble from Weiss.

"Blake...before. You were wrong. It will be alright some day."

"I want to believe that. I do, but-"

"But nothing. Look at us. I'm the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, something hated by faunas the world over, and I have a former member of the white fang as a teammate…and as a friend. I'd…call that a start?"

Blake didn't answer, and Weiss sighed inwardly as she laid back. There was nothing else to say, but Weiss kept Blake's hand in hers. It remained there until she finally drifted off to sleep.

It would still be there when she awoke.


	4. Chapter 4

Yang felt Ruby tap her arm, and she looked up. Weiss and Blake had entered the cafeteria together, and both of them were looking much better. Color has returned to Weiss' face, and Blake, while not looking terribly happy, was in a much better state than she was when Yang had last seen her.

The other half of Team RWBY picked out some food and sat down with the sisters to eat, and the table was silent until Blake caught Ruby staring at her.

"Blake, are you…feeling better?"

Blake nodded, and sent a glance and a small smile towards Weiss. Weiss caught both and smiled in return. Then both of them suddenly found their breakfast very interesting.

"O~oh." Yang drawled out the sound and punctuated it with a smirk. "That's one way to cheer a girl up."

"What?" Weiss looked indignant, and sputtered as she replied. "Talking! We talked! That's all!"

"Is that what kids are calling it these days?"

Ruby giggled as Weiss fumed. Then she saw the blush on Blake's face, and dropped her spoon in shock.

"Wait, seriously?"

Yang's laughter made heads turn, and she slapped her little sister's back as she rocked back and forth in her chair. Weiss continued to scowl until the laughter slowly died down, desperately hoping that no one was listening in on the conversation.

"Why do you insist on doing that?"

"Mostly because it's fun. And because it's so easy to get a rise out of you."

"Blake, remind me to get Yang back for this sometime."

"With her personality, it will be difficult. You're going to need to get something on her first."

"Good point. Can you think of anything I could use?"

Blake hmm'ed, and Yang's grin grew to reach from ear to ear.

"Bring it on, princess. Anytime."

* * *

"Ok, we need a new plan."

Ruby stood in front of a fresh whiteboard filled with every theory they could think of.

"After last night's riot, things are only going to get worse, so we need answers, and fast."

"I still think there's something odd about the lack of grimm in the vicinity." Yang began. "If things are bad enough that it's boiling over like this, where are they? Attacks should have started ramping up long ago. I wonder if we're being told the whole truth here."

"But there must be a reason behind the fear." Blake added. "The Faunas here wouldn't riot over rumors."

"There's still the question of why the security grid shut down. Someone is definitely tampering with it." Weiss paused before continuing. "Blake, I'll check the company records, but I think you should ask around about the Faunas that were killed. Even if they're not with the White Fang, their actions were more than a little suspicious."

"You're right. And most of the worker's housing is near the east wall. If a Grimm got inside the walls, it would have kept attacking people until someone brought it down. It wouldn't leave, especially not when there were so many people close by."

"Well, I guess we could check out the scene. After that, I guess more tracking."

Blake made herself look busy until Ruby and Yang left. Weiss made her own excuses, waiting to hear what she wanted to say.

"Weiss, is there any way you can get them to release the faunas they've imprisoned?"

"I'm sorry, but I don't have that kind of authority. Unless you can find strong evidence of their innocence, they'll be fired and shipped back to Vale under guard. Until then, I promise I'll do whatever I can for them."

"Thank you."

"Can you sound any less convinced? Have I ever broken a promise to you?"

"I don't think you've ever made a promise to me."

"Well, if this is my first, I'd better keep it. I wouldn't want to set a bad precedent."

Weiss managed to keep the smile on her face until she and Blake parted. This time, at least, she was glad the others wouldn't be there with her. If she wanted anything to get done, she'd have to be the good little heiress the company would expect; aloof, uncaring, and charmingly racist.

Just what her father always wanted.

* * *

Yang ran her fingers around the dark stains on the concrete. A spray of brownish red stretched halfway to the top of the wall, and she stepped back to bring it all into view. Ruby watched perplexed as Yang began dancing around the faded chalk outlines and waving her arms through the air.

"…Yang?"

"One…second…"

Yang stopped in mid-step and began walking backwards, away from the location the three bodies had been found at.

"Hey, um, security guy!"

The chief had insisted on sending along an escort when the two huntress headed into lodging area. The few faunas they'd seen had kept their heads down and given the group a wide berth.

"What kind of grimm got in here?"

The guard checked a notepad at his belt, and then asked the guard next to him, who asked the guard next to him. A full circle of shrugs was her answer.

"Yang, what are you doing?"

"I'm just trying to figure out what happened." She pointed a finger to the top of the wall, and drew a line down to where the bodies had been found below. "This is weird. Either the grimm landed on them and then started tearing up the bodies, or the three of them just stood still and let themselves get killed. Didn't any of them even try to get away?"

Ruby grimaced as she took in the scene. Admittedly, it was strange. The bodies were found practically right next to each other.

"Actually, ma'am…"

It seemed someone had gotten away. There was a fourth faunas present, who had barely managed to escape when the grimm was busy killing his friends. He had called for help, but it had been too late to arrive. After flipping through the notes they'd been handed and going over the scene twice, Ruby and Yang still came away without an explanation for the discrepancy. They'd have to go looking for the survivor later to get more information.

For now, it was time to hunt.

Once outside of the walls, Yang and Ruby headed to the site of the first death, but there was nothing around but a pair of wandering beowulfs that were quickly dispatched. The grimm's tracks were somewhat more informative, and the sisters soon found where the grimm had been going.

Yang, Ruby, and the security escort stood on a low hill overlooking the cavern that the technician had died returning from. Though grimm leave no bodies, the signs of battle were unmistakable. Trees had been chewed up by dust rounds and blades, the dirt had been churned by clawed feet in a full sprint, and there were scorch marks everywhere.

Yang ran her hands through a gash in a tree as she passed, feeling the texture of the wood on her fingertips. It had been left by a manmade weapon, nothing spectacular considering the depth of the cut, probably something mass-produced and carried by any number of people whose travels took them outside a kingdom's walls.

"So…What's here that would attract grimm?"

"Nothing, Ma'am. It's a prospective mining site. The technician was here collecting drill samples from automated equipment."

Ruby paced the edge of a small crater and the ring of burnt grass surrounding it.

"If the equipment was automated, then who was fighting grimm here?"

"Well ma'am, all personnel carry weapons when outside the walls."

"But all of this looks pretty recent. The chief said there haven't been any big fights with grimm lately, and there's no way one guy did all this by himself."

The guards were at a loss, and Yang was thinking of taking a look inside the cave when a shadow passed over her. She turned just in time to see their truck flipping through the air towards her, and she dived to safety feeling the rush of air as it passed overhead. It crashed to the ground and rolled until it hit a tree, allowing everyone to see the deep furrows carved into the frame.

A nevermore beat its wing to gain altitude, a massive specimen even by its species' normally ridiculous standards.

"Hate…" Yang growled as Ruby rushed over to check on her. "Smart grimm…"

Back on their feet, the sisters glared at the grimm high above them. The tips of its feathers were pale white, a sign of extreme age.

"Looks like we're walking back…"

The nevermore opened its mouth wide, and shrieked as if mocking them wide making wide and lazy turns in the air. Moments later, screams answered the nevermore's cries.

"Ok, so it brought some friends." Yang slammed her fists together, and Ember Celica unfurled. "Good. I could use a little-"

From a different direction, more grimm cried out.

"Exercise…"

The guards slowly made a circle, raising their weapons and scanning their surroundings. The forest shook. The nevermore's cries turned from mocking to challenging.

"…That's a lot of grimm."

Ruby unsheathed Crescent Rose, took one look at the situation, and started running as the forest around them began shuddering.

"Cave! Now!"

* * *

Blake let herself be guided into the alleyway, the tip of a blade against her spine.

She was confident she could easily get away from the two burly faunas threatening her, but she was here to get information and it was starting to look like she'd finally learn something useful. She was led into a supply warehouse, and picked her way between discarded mining equipment and boxes of miscellanea.

Blake spotted the silhouettes behind the plastic sheet before it was pulled aside. She scanned the thugs armed with picks and hammers before turning her gaze to the man seated on a throne of stacked crates. His head was bowed and his face hidden, a pair of rounded ears peeking out from a greasy mess of grey hair.

"Hello, Blake."

She knew that voice.

The fauna hopped off his crate-chair and spread his arms wide.

"It's been a long time, sister of the White Fang. Remember me? It's your old friend Cooper! Oh, the fun we used to have together…"

The faunas behind her moved to block the doorway, and Cooper dropped his arms along with the false joviality from his voice.

"I hear you've made some new friends, Blake. I'm hoping you'll introduce me."


End file.
